Chapter 396: Too Many Coincidences Are No Coincidence

"James, I'm worried Xanthe might go after Briar!"

James's expression turned cold as ice.

"If it really is that psycho Xanthe, she'd absolutely go after Briar to get back at us."

James paused, thinking. "My people have been keeping tabs on Xanthe and her daughter Tatum. They were traveling until recently—just got back today, actually."

"Traveling? Where'd they go?"

"Zephyria."

Emily froze. She remembered the signal fragment she'd picked up in Oceancrest City—the encrypted email Ewan had sent. The IP address it was sent to had been traced to Zephyria.

Could that be a coincidence?

"James, what if the mysterious person behind Ewan—the one who hired someone to attack us at the hotel, used Ewan to get Marc killed, and tried to steal The Ramos Family fortune—what if it's Xanthe?"

"There's no proof."

James frowned. "Besides, I've looked into Xanthe's finances. With her pathetic assets, there's no way she could've bankrolled everything Ewan did. And those muscle relaxants and toxic compounds we found in Ewan's room—that stuff isn't easy to get. Unless you've got a doctor friend or serious knowledge of pharmaceuticals and medicine yourself, you can't just whip those up."

"Xanthe doesn't have any doctor friends, and she definitely doesn't have any medical or pharmaceutical training."

"Is that so?"

Emily fell silent.

After a long moment, she slowly lifted her head, her gaze steady and determined as she looked at James. "Whatever Xanthe's planning, I'll protect Briar."

"Yeah. And I'll be right there with you."

James went quiet for a beat, then reached up to cup Emily's cheek. The hard lines of his face softened in that instant.

"Briar is our daughter. We'll protect her together."

Emily's lashes fluttered. Something soft inside her chest seemed to get hit—tender and aching all at once.

The distance between them shrank. Just as their lips were about to meet, Emily's phone rang sharply from inside her bag.

Emily snapped back to reality. Face flushed, she pushed away James, who was practically leaning over her, then pulled out her phone and stepped aside to answer it.

James blinked in surprise, then let out a soft laugh. His eyes, full of affection, never left her.

"Hello? Hermione, shouldn't you be at work right now?"

Emily glanced at the clock on the wall. Three o'clock in the afternoon—normal working hours for most people.

It was definitely odd for Hermione to be calling her during work.

"Emily."

Hermione's voice sounded tired. "Are you free right now?"

"What's wrong?"

"I..."

...

NovaStar Entertainment, first-floor lobby reception area.

Hermione sat in a corner sofa, phone in hand. She glanced around cautiously, and once she was sure no one was paying attention to her, she lowered her voice.

"Emily, I honestly don't know what to do anymore. The artist I was assigned to take care of went missing today. The company says they'll assign me someone else, but I still haven't heard anything."

"I'm at the office right now, and everyone's busy except me. I'm just sitting here rotting away. God, this was supposed to be my first artist as a personal assistant, and before I even really started, she disappears."

Hermione vented quietly to Emily.

Emily froze when she heard that.

No way. That can't be a coincidence.

"Hermione, is the artist you were assigned named Bethany?"

"Yeah. Emily, how do you know about her? She's only eighteen and hasn't even officially debuted yet. She shouldn't be famous."

"Hermione, I just ran into Matilda. She's working on a collaboration with NovaStar Entertainment, and the artist involved is Bethany. I literally just heard her name from Matilda."

"What a coincidence!"

Hermione couldn't help but cover her mouth as she whispered in surprise.

"Yeah. I think so too."

Emily paused, then said gently, "Hermione, I've got a bad feeling about this. Please be careful. Don't get involved in anything that's not your business, okay?"

"I know."

Hermione nodded.

Just then, someone in the office called out Hermione's name. She quickly said to Emily, "Emily, someone's calling me. I've gotta go. Let's meet up after I get off work."

With that, Hermione hurriedly hung up and headed toward whoever had called her.

On the other end, Emily stared at her darkened phone screen, then turned and walked back over to James.

James raised an eyebrow, his gaze questioning.

"Hermione works at NovaStar Entertainment now. The first artist she was assigned to is Bethany—the one who went missing."

"What a coincidence."

The two of them stared at each other in silence for a moment.

Then James's phone buzzed with a message notification, breaking the quiet in the room.

James pulled out his phone and glanced at the message. His brow furrowed slightly, then a flicker of surprise crossed his eyes before he quickly masked it with understanding.

"Emily, want to hear an even bigger coincidence?"

Emily raised an eyebrow but said nothing. She looked up at James quietly, waiting for him to continue.

James chuckled softly. "Tobias just sent me a message. He's got a lead on Marc's background. Marc really was an orphan. No siblings. That whole story about his sister being kidnapped was probably made up by whoever's behind Ewan. Or maybe that message we intercepted about Marc's 'kidnapped sister' was fake from the start."

"All fake. Whoever's pulling Ewan's strings really went all out to make Marc's death look like a guilt-driven suicide."

"So what's the other coincidence you mentioned?"

"Marc came from the same place—Love & Care Orphanage."

Emily's eyes widened in shock.

"Bethany and Marc both came from Love & Care Orphanage? Could Bethany's disappearance be connected to Marc's death?"

"That's exactly what we need to investigate next. Looks like we're taking a trip to Love & Care Orphanage."

Emily paused, then analyzed calmly, "We can go to the orphanage, but from what my sister said, the police have already investigated there. Plus, the place has been abandoned for ten years. It's probably cordoned off by now. If we want to get in, we'll need to talk to the officer handling Bethany's case first."

Emily thought for a moment, then pulled out her phone. "I'll call Ivan right now. With his help, we might actually be able to get past the police line and investigate inside the orphanage."

"Him again!"

James grabbed Emily's wrist, his face darkening as he ground out, "Why do you keep running to a married man for help? I can get you in there just fine without him!"